I ran across an old photo of him the other day, thinking of some old things. He’s been dead for 25 years. His name was Rex.

___1___ was his favorite recreation(娱乐). He had so much ___2___ in the water as any person I have known. You didn’t have .to throw a stick in the water to ___3___ him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you ___4___ throw one in.

That ___5___ me of that night, ___6___ he brought back a small box that he found somewhere—how ___7___ nobody ever knew. Since it was Rex, it ___8___ easily have been half a race. The box wasn’t a good one. It was just a ___9___ old piece that somebody ___10___. Still it was something he wanted, probably ___11___ there was some difficulty in transportation(运输). And that he thought could test his courage. We first knew about his achievement when, deep in the night, we ___12___ him trying to get the box up onto the porch(门厅). It sounded ___13___ two or three people were trying to tear the house ___14___. We came downstairs and turned on the ___15___ light. Rex was on the top step trying to pull the thing up, but it had ___16___ somehow. And he was just holding his own(坚持己见). I suppose he would have held his own ___17___ dawn if we hadn’t helped him. The next day we carried the box miles away and threw it out. If we had thrown it out in a ___18___ place, he would have brought it home again, as a small token(象征) of his strength in such matters. ___19___, he had been taught to carry heavy wooden objects about and he was ___20___ of his skill.